Industrial relations laws back on Coalition reform agenda

Scott Morrison says a returned Coalition government would ­revive changes to industrial relations laws it was forced to drop last year.

Scott Morrison says a returned Coalition government would revisit its industrial relations rethink. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison says a returned Coalition government would ­revive changes to industrial relations laws it was forced to drop last year and is warning that Labor’s changes to workplace entitlements would cost businesses billions of dollars a year.

The Coalition passed a gutted version of its IR bill last March after dropping key provisions on wage theft, award simplification, enterprise bargaining – including changes to the better-off-overall test – and longer greenfields agreements to cover the life-of-construction for new projects.

The Prime Minister said on Saturday he would “go forward and pursue those legislative changes” if he were returned to ­office.

The proposals were the product of “getting unions ­together, employers together, over countless numbers of hours to ensure that we can come up with practical things that would make the industrial relations system work better”.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the Coalition’s plans would “cut wages even ­further”.

Anthony Albanese was also forced to defend his approach to workplace laws at the weekend after business groups ­demanded he provide more ­details about his plan to expand portable entitlement schemes for those in insecure work.

Master Builders Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia said there was insufficient detail about which workers would be covered, how much extra employers would need to pay and the effect it would have on the economy.

“Our policy that I announced in Brisbane more than a year ago was that we would consult. That is the plan,” the Opposition Leader said.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus

“This isn’t something that we seek to impose on anybody. This is consistent with our plan to consult with business, to consult with unions so we get win-win.

“On portable entitlements, of course, you can’t have something imposed from above on everyone. But what it is about is we know there is more and more insecure work out there.

“We know that half a million Australians are working three jobs. That figure has doubled under this government’s watch.”

Mr Albanese also defended his relationship with business, saying he talked with the BCA and the Ai Group as well as a range of other employer groups. “I will continue to develop that constructive relationship,” he said.

Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Financial Services Minister Jane Hume said Labor had questions to answer over its plan to develop new portable entitlements for those in insecure work, saying it would “potentially cost employers billions”.

“The Master Builders … the Business Council of Australia and indeed the Ai Group have also come out and sounded the alarm to say that Anthony Albanese’s industrial relations ­reforms are not reforms at all – they are simply costs to business,” she said.

“They will push up the price of houses, of construction. They would increase the cost of ­employing new people.”

The MBA has warned that an extra $2.3bn a year could be poured into Labor’s new entitlement funds if the 230,000 tradies in the construction sector were captured, while the Ai Group said some employers would be slapped with a new levy of 15 per cent.